Friday, October 19, 2012

The Martyrs Testify: Christian Catholicity Against the Victim Mentality

A few weekends ago, Regent College had a conference on faith and politics. During this conference, Peter Leithart spoke on the role of martyrs in the transformation of society. He emphasized the powerful witness of the Christian martyrs against the system of power in the old roman world, and how this witness stood as a prophecy of the coming destruction of pagan Rome, and as a prayer to the God who would surely not let the seed of the martyr blood lie fallow. Leithart then emphasized that we ought to identify ourselves with the martyr witness.

In response to this, Iwan Russel-Jones worried that to focus on the martyrs would simply encourage the harmful victim mentality of modern evangelical Christians.

And he's right - it might. Indeed, I think it will if we continue to forget the catholicity of the Church. If we forget that we are one body with the martyrs past, present and future, then we may indeed exaggerated our own sense of cultural alienation into melodramatic martyr language.

However, I believe that the prescription of Peter Leithart is precisely what we need to cure the victim mentality. For Leithart is not advocating a localized view of martyrdom and the church, but a global one. When we are truly catholic, remembering that many Christians today are true martyrs, and that they are our brothers and sisters, along with the saints in Heaven who's prayers continually go up before the throne of God, then we can be under no illusion that our present trials are martyrdom. Our witness will become the prayers, fasting and acts of service we do in honour of those whose lives have become true sacrifices.

Let us remember the martyr-saints who have gone before us, and those who stand beside us in the Church militant.

About Me

I was born in Kenya and lived there for nearly four years. After returning to the states I moved to California.
I recently graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy, and am currently attending a masters program in theology in Vancouver. I hope to eventually become a professor.
I have an amazing family, incredible friends and a wonderful church community.
Throughout my interests can be found an intense attraction to issues of human nature, be they in drawing people, philosophizing about human ethics or any number of other subjects. People fascinate me.
My faith is, and always will be the central hub of my life, and more than just faith, my relationship to God and my place in His Kingdom. My chief aim in life is to grow in my relationship to Christ and try and fulfill the greatest commandments to love God with all my heart, mind and soul and to love my neighbor as myself.